25 travelers at this place:

Massive tour day today with our guide Alisa. I am using Toursbylocals which get great reviews. Each guide has a bio and various tours they have designed.
If you have limited time and want to see alot then its the way to go. With Mum's mobility issues its a must.

Most will customise your tour if requested.

So in the morning we saw many of the key sights: Vasilyevsky Island, Peter & Paul Fortress and Cathedral (where tsars are buried including the last Emperor Nicholas II and his royal family) St Issacs Cathedral, Kazan Cathedral, Church on Spilled Blood, Palace Square and Nevesky Prospect which is the main street. Also generally just looking at the beautiful buildings, canals, bridges and statues.

When the remains of Nicholas II and his family were found and DNA verified they were buried in the church with the other former tsars in 1998 with various world figures attending including Yeltsin. Most of the remains of the family were found in 1979. In 2007 the remains of the son and a daughter were found making the family complete.

In 1981 the Russian Orthodox Church made them Saints and in 2008 the Supreme Court of Russia determined that the royal family were victims of political persecution.Read more

We had a lazy start this morning - the boys had been up late watching a soccer match! We were planning to see 3 places this morning - Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, Faberge Museum and St Isaacs Cathedral.

The weather has been getting a degree warmer every day with today getting to 11 degrees. It hasn’t been as cold as we were afraid it might be which has been good. Overnight it is getting to -3 but we don’t feel that inside!

We had breakfast on route - i ended up with a rather sweeter one than I was anticipating as the porridge I ordered ended up being more of a rice pudding with fruit! The other morning it turned out to be muesli and milk! We shall get it right eventually!

The area around the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood had a lot more touristy stuff like souvenir stalls, people selling paintings, people in costume etc. we did a little bit of souvenir shopping - buying some matroyshka dolls (known to us as babushka dolls but apparently this is not the correct name!) and a few other things. The guy we bought the dolls from explained some of the history behind them which was interesting - there was a set of all girls (sisters) and they were each holding something different, representing what their role would have been at home - feeding the chickens, making porridge right down to the youngest sucking it’s finger.

The Church on Spilled Blood as it is also called, is so named because it is built on the site where Tsar Alexander II was fatally wounded by a grenade as he was passing by in his carriage. The first grenade did not harm him but he left the carriage to remonstrate with the culprit and another one was thrown which wounded him. He later died at the palace. I don’t know why he didn’t just escape while he had the chance! The inside of the church was covered with mosaics - it was amazing! All the walls, everything was done in mosaics. It was quite something. Its hard to imagine all these types of buildings being destroyed when Christ returns - they seem so solid and enduring! I guess the Jews thought the same of their temple.

We walked from here towards the Faberge Museum. Faberge was a Russian jeweller best known for the Faberge eggs which were made like Easter eggs but from stones and precious jewels. He was commissioned to make them for the imperial family. Unfortunately the museum was closed today so we were unable to visit which was a bit disappointing. Maybe we’ll have time tomorrow before we fly off to Siberia.

Eli and I decided to head back to the apartment to give Heidi lunch and put her down for a nap while Mike and Kyria went back to St Isaac’s Cathedral.Read more

This is the most Russian place I've seen so far in this highly European city. All of the art--walls and ceiling-- is mosaics, except the altar screen and a couple icons. The last pic is a commemoration of the spot where Czar Alexander II was assassinated, hence the spilled blood reference in the name. The mosaics are mind blowing.

This is around the outside of the dome and is supposed to be the only place to get a view over the city. I was uncomfortable with the height, especially when the wind cane up and was buffeting me around. But I got some pics. The 1st is the Winter Palace. The 2nd and 3rd look over the city toward the gulf of Finland. Then another look at the savior in the spilled blood church. Finally, a couple of the decorations on the building.Read more